COL BKB: Penn State 83, Rhode Island 72

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., March 19 (UPI) -- Stanley Pringle scored 19 points Thursday and Penn State came through from the foul line to produce an 83-72 NIT victory over Rhode Island.

The Nittany Lions will take on either Florida or Miami in next week's quarterfinals.

Penn State saw a 16-point lead dwindle to six with 2 minutes to play and the Nittany Lions went without a field goal for the final 8:53 of the contest.

They went to the line 17 times in that stretch, however, and made 14 free throws to improve their record to 24-11.

Andrew Jones added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Notre Dame, which made it past the first round of the tournament Tuesday with a win over Alabama-Birmingham.

Rhode Island (23-11) was led by Jimmy Baron with 24 points.